Special Section: Videos, interactive maps, summaries and local coverage of Obamacare

Marquette University students with government internships in the nation's capital are learning how public policy is made — or not made — as the federal shutdown enters its second week.

Three of the 18 interns from Marquette's Les Aspin Center for Government are out of work. Two were volunteers assigned to Congress; one was assigned to a federal department. Those still working on Capitol Hill are answering the phones, handling mail and taking both the heat and the support from constituents strongly divided over the government shutdown.

If nothing else, it's not a bad way to learn about political dysfunction.

"It's an interesting time to be here," said Marquette senior Emily Wright, the one interning at a major department. Which one? Wright preferred not to name it without getting permission to talk to a reporter — and thanks to the shutdown, there was no one to ask.

"For the first couple of days, it was nice to get a little bit of a break," Wright said. "I figured they'd have the whole thing sorted out in a day or two, and it was nice to have time to finish a paper that was due Friday. But the longer this stretches out, it's more frustrating because I was doing a lot of cool stuff, and when I go back to work, it's going to be stressful and crazy."

During the shutdown, Wright said she and the other two interns told not to report to work have been touring parts of Washington that aren't shut down. Wright, who is double-majoring in criminal justice and political science, is looking forward to catching Supreme Court arguments on a campaign finance case Tuesday.

She hasn't made plans beyond that.

"I'm not worried at this point," Wright said Monday. "I'm a very pragmatic, optimistic person, and the federal government will be open soon. Everyone will come together to work something out."

She believes the deadline for raising the debt ceiling will force a resolution.

The Aspin Center gives Marquette students the opportunity to gain insight into the challenges and rewards of public service from behind the scenes. Students spend three days a week, usually working in federal agencies and congressional offices, then take four classes, two days a week, at the center.

This semester's crop arrived in Washington at the start of the Syrian crisis over chemical weapons. They're housed about a half mile from the Naval Yard, where a 34-year-old gunman shot and killed 12 people and wounded four others on Sept. 16. And now there's the federal government shutdown.

"Growing up in the Midwest, you're so far from the action in D.C.," said Aaron Connelly Nutting, a Marquette senior from Chanhassen, Minn. Nutting works in the office of Wisconsin Rep. Reid Ribble.

Ribble, a conservative Republican from Sherwood, last week issued a statement that the shutdown was "harmful and embarrassing." Despite his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, Ribble said, "Two wrongs don't make a right."

"It's very interesting to be in the middle of the shutdown," Nutting said. "It's also extremely disappointing that it's going on. As a student, everything I want to see is shut down, from the museums to the Library of Congress. My time here is limited."

Nutting still goes running down the National Mall, past the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial.

"I can still see them," he said. "Just not up close."

So, what has he learned about how public policy is made, and the challenges and rewards of public service?

"One thing I've come to learn and appreciate is just how complex every decision and vote is," Nutting said. "There are different factions within the Republican party. When you're in an office like Representative Ribble's, you get calls from people affected differently by the shutdown."

Some constituents want Ribble to keep the pressure on President Barack Obama; others want him to compromise so the government can get back to work. Nutting's job is to listen and pass along the messages.

"My experience here is exciting and upbeat, but it's also kind of disheartening to see all the problems," Nutting said. "I have a feeling it will settle down soon, though."

Watching the political battles from the front row hasn't dampened his enthusiasm for politics, said Nutting, who is majoring in political science and working on a minor in economics.

He's not sure what he wants to do after graduating, but he plans to squeeze every opportunity he can out of his Capitol Hill internship, which ends in mid-December.

If the shutdown continues into next week, Marquette may look for other opportunities for the three interns now out of work, so they can still get three credit hours for their internship, said Chris Murray, a lecturer at the Aspin Center and coordinator of student affairs.

Murray teaches a class about Congress, so the shutdown has provided excellent fodder for class discussions, he said.

"It's a case study in how things shouldn't happen," Murray said. "For this to work in the end, everybody's going to have to be unhappy — at least moderately unhappy. There's a faction in the House demanding 100% of what they want. Everybody's kind of dug in. In that sense, you wish you didn't have dysfunction as a teaching tool."